Three days after Jefferson Parish Sheriff candidate John Fortunato met with former co-workers at an Elmwood coffee shop on Oct. 15, interim Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto "requested a picture of the meeting" from the deputy who'd spotted the trio, according to an internal affairs investigative report released Tuesday (Feb. 6).

But when asked about the internal investigation into the deputies who eventually retrieved surveillance video of the meeting, Lopinto said he had no knowledge of the video until Dec. 18. That's when a media outlet made a public records request for a copy of the video.

Lopinto also said at the time that the deputy who went to retrieve the footage had done so on his own to help Lopinto's campaign.

"How can he deny having no knowledge of the video?" Fortunato asked Tuesday after the report was made public. "That's a bald-face lie."

However, Lopinto on Tuesday maintained that he didn't order anyone to get the video, and he didn't know that any deputies had done so until the media request two months later.

"Not one time did they tell me, 'Alright, we're going over there today. We're going to get it. I'll get you a copy of it,'" Lopinto said.

It all started when Fortunato met with retired Sheriff's Office Chief Deputies Walter Gorman and John Thevenot at the PJ's Coffee, located at 5359 Mounes St., Elmwood, on Oct. 15.

Fortunato, a retired Sheriff's Office colonel, is running against Lopinto to fill the expired term of former Sheriff Newell Normand, who unexpectedly retired on Aug. 31 to begin a career in talk radio. The contentious race has seen both candidates challenge the other's experience.

Sgt. Rodney Naumann had happened by PJ's on the day Fortunato met with Gorman and Thevenot. He mentioned the gathering to Lopinto at the scene of a car crash on Oct. 18, according to the internal affairs report.

"Sheriff Lopinto requested a picture of the meeting," the report said.

Naumann told Lopinto he knew the coffee shop's owner and manager and would ask about the picture.

Lopinto again mentioned the "video/photograph" the next day during a "casual conversation" with Chief Deputy Tim Scanlan, commander of the Technical Services Bureau, telling Scanlan "he would like to have a copy of it," the report said.

Scanlan called Naumann and, based on the conversation with Lopinto, asked the sergeant if he could get the video/photograph on one of his breaks. Naumann returned to PJ's and got permission from business owner Mike Pierce to make a copy of the video from the store's security camera.

But neither Pierce, PJ's Manager Brandon Mueller nor Naumann could retrieve the video, according to the report. Naumann called Scanlan for help, and Scanlan asked Detective Robert Miles to take an early lunch break and assist Naumann, the report said.

Miles asked his supervisor, Detective Steven Villere, to help with copying the video. Villere and Miles volunteered "to do a favor for their chief and take an early lunch," the report said.

Miles and Villere downloaded the video onto a "non-departmental thumb drive," and it was given to Scanlan, the report said.

Lopinto, Scanlan and Naumann are listed as the employees named in the complaint/investigation, which Lopinto filed. Villere and Miles were listed as witnesses.

Boudreaux found that Lopinto didn't order anyone to obtain the video, and "no one was asked to participate during work hours by the sheriff," according to the report. He described Naumann's request to retrieve the video as "personal" and determined that no department computer equipment was used.

"Everyone thought they were not in violation of departmental rules," the report said.

Though "breaks and lunches" are considered "their time," Boudreaux noted that political issues should not be handled during the work day.

Though the report determined that the Sheriff's Office code of conduct wasn't violated, Lopinto issued a "deficiency counseling to the deputies involved," according to a statement released Jan. 19.

"Deficiency counseling" is a written record of verbal counseling, typically used "to document an administrative violation that can be corrected with simple counseling or minimal supervisory intervention," according to the Sheriff's Office.

It was not clear which of the staffers - Lopinto, Scanlan, Naumann, Miles or Villere -- received the counseling.

The report shows that Lopinto wasn't being honest when asked about the video, the effort to retrieve it from PJ's and the reason why it was done in the first place, according to Fortunato. He said he believes the deputies used department equipment and manpower to retrieve the footage and has previously called the internal investigation a sham.

"It was all untrue," he said of Lopinto's explanation. "When a candidate for sheriff starts his campaign by lying to the people, that's a good indicator of what may come."

Lopinto conceded that a "request" from the sheriff of a department with at-will employment and no civil service could be construed as more than a request. But Lopinto insisted that he didn't direct anyone to get the coffee house video.

"I had an offer by a deputy to go obtain a video, an offer from a friend to go obtain a video," he said. "This was not an order from a sheriff to a deputy. This was a friend to a friend."